The invention concerns a stuffing which consists of a plurality of preferably loosely disposed individual stuffing elements of an elastic material.
Stuffing of this type is widely used for pillows, eiderdowns and similar bedclothes, for padding or mattresses and upholstered furniture and as thermal insulation in, e.g., buildings. Originally, the only stuffing that had been used was naturally occurring products, such as down, feathers, kapok and curled hair. Currently, a wide choice of artificially produced materials, such as foamed plastics and fibers of varying materials, such as plastics, glass and stone, is also available.
The known art comprises a variety of artificial materials for making artificial straw for stable-litters, for protection of fragile articles, and for stuffing.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,401 describes artificial straw to replace conventional straw for making stable-litters to be used by animals such as horses and bovines.
The dimensions of this artificial straw (in a flat and stretched condition) is indicated to be within the following intervals or ranges:
______________________________________ PART. GENERAL PREFERRED PREFERRED ______________________________________ Thickness (.mu.m) 60-800 100-600 150-500 Length (mm) 30-800 100-600 150-400 Width (mm) 1-20 2-15 2.5-8 ______________________________________
The aspect ratio (i.e., the ratio of length/width) for the artificial straw thus lies within the interval 1.5-800, preferably 7-300, and particularly preferred is the interval or range 18-160.
CH Patent Specification No. 538,425 describes a material for protection of fragile articles, e.g., during transportation, comprising oval, saddle-shaped plates of foamed plastics and a method of producing this material comprising a final foaming step.
Typical dimensions for the unfoamed intermediate product are: Length: 3-20 mm, Width: 2-10 mm, Thickness: 800-3000 .mu.m.
This intermediate product is then subjected to a foaming step whereby the size of the particles is increased by a factor 3-4.
DE Patent Specification No. 1,131,505 describes a stuffing material for upholstering, and for heat and sound insulation consisting of a number of flexible, corrugated plastics strips which are inter-bonded with a specific binder.
GB Patent Specification No. 977,872 describes a stuffing material for cushions, mattresses, quilts and the like and for packing comprising a multiplicity of randomly entangled regular shaped foam resin filaments having roughened surfaces to effect interlocking between contacting filaments.
In all cases the consumption of stuffing is very considerable, and it is therefore generally required that the stuffing must be available at a reasonable price, and that it must be easy and safe to work with the stuffing, but the stuffing must at the same time also be capable of complying with a large number of technical specifications which can vary from one application to the other, but which generally comprise standards of density, elastic deformability, insulation capacity and washability, and in most cases the stuffing must additionally be flame retardant and may not cause discomfort to the allergics. However, it has been found that the known stuffing materials, in spite of their variety, have not in all cases been fully capable of satisfying the above-mentioned requirements.